RE: [logs] Monitoring Windows Security Events

ericf@private

Again, sorry for the slow reply- everyone who asked for membership in
the beta should have received bits by now.

MACS is a separate codebase from MOM; it's new code and unrelated in any
way to the MOM source code.

MOM is a management product and is optimized to the management case-
fewer events; unique event IDs, correlation on the client; sophisticated
rules on the client.

MACS is a security event collection product and is optimized to this
case- high event volume, uniqueness in the description field, thin
client, correlation on the server.

Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: loganalysis-bounces+ericf=windows.microsoft.com@private
[mailto:loganalysis-bounces+ericf=windows.microsoft.com@private]
On Behalf Of Daniele Muscetta
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2003 3:22 PM
To: loganalysis@private
Subject: RE: [logs] Monitoring Windows Security Events

On Thu, 2003-10-09 at 22:28, Eric Fitzgerald wrote:
> Only the security log.  This is a security event collection system,
not
> a general-purpose management system. 
> 

Little question out of curiosity... is it somehow derived from or based
on MOM ?

With Best Regards, 

Daniele Muscetta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Safier, Adam * [mailto:Safier@private] 
> Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2003 1:23 PM
> To: Eric Fitzgerald; loganalysis@private
> Subject: RE: [logs] Monitoring Windows Security Events
> 
> Eric,
> 
> Will it also capture the other MSFT logs?  (i.e. system and
application)
> or only the security Log?
> 
> Adam
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric Fitzgerald [mailto:ericf@private]
> Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2003 1:17 PM
> To: loganalysis@private
> Subject: RE: [logs] Monitoring Windows Security Events
> 
> 
> Microsoft is working on a project called the Microsoft Audit
Collection
> System, which will be released at the same time as Windows Server 2003
> SP1.
> 
> This is a client-server application to collect security event logs
> securely to a central database, and also to provide a platform for
> real-time intrusion detection.
> 
> The design goals for MACS were:
> 1. Move towards auditor-administrator role separation via real-time
> audit export 2. Enhance analyzability of security events 3. Provide a
> platform for real-time distributed HIDS 4. Collect events securely
> 
> Non-goals were:
> 1. Windows NT 4.0 support
> 2. Support for other event logs
> 3. Support for syslog, snmp, beep, etc.  (We considered and rejected
> these and other protocols before implementing our own transport
> protocol)
> 4. Support for non-Microsoft SQL databases
> 
> Our agent runs as a service on the monitored machine, monitors the
> security log, packages the events and transfers them to the collector
in
> near-real-time (we hold non-full network buffers for a short time a la
> Nagle).
> 
> The agent mutually authenticates to the collector using Kerberos or
SSL.
> 
> The agent normalizes the events to a Windows Server 2003 schema, adds
> additional information (name if only SID/GUID present & vice versa),
> compresses, encrypts, and transmits the event.  All insertion strings
> are kept in their original format; we don't combine the event data
with
> the event message.
> 
> Encryption is 128-bit RC4 with periodic re-keying.
> 
> Connection is a socket connection over a configurable TCP port;
service
> location is via SRV records or local configuration.
> 
> The agent pre-allocates all necessary memory at startup (it can't
leak).
> Working set size is <2.9Mb; CPU usage is typically <0.5% even under
> heavy load.  The agent uses the security log itself as a transmit
> buffer.  There is a configurable heartbeat mechanism.
> 
> The collector receives, decrypts, & decompresses the events.  The
> collector adds type information to each field of each event (we have
> developed an XML schema for the security event log, the collector
> pre-reads this and uses this to add the type information).
> 
> The collector acts as a WMI provider; applications can be written to
> subscribe to the collector and receive a filtered, normalized event
> stream in real time.  In this way any HIDS logic does not have to run
> inside the collector but can be placed externally; new logic can be
> added, changed, or removed dynamically by unsubscribing and
> re-subscribing.
> 
> The collector then loads the events into a database.  The database
> loader uses a configurable pre-filter to discard unwanted events.
Note
> that the agent does not support pre-transmit filtering; this
introduces
> complexity and prevents reliable event sequence gap detection.  The
> database loader then loads the events into a Microsoft SQL Server 2000
> database.
> 
> All string data is stored in a single-instance fashion, reducing the
> storage overhead in the database and increasing query performance.
Any
> field of any event can be queried directly by value or type.  The
> database loader also prunes the database, discarding events over a
> configurable age.
> 
> MACS will be an out-of-band release of a Windows component.  That is,
> MACS will be part of Windows in future releases.  MACS agent is a
> no-cost add-on license to Windows 2000 and all later releases.  MACS
> collector is a no-cost add-on license to Windows Server 2003.  That is
> to say, if you own a valid Windows 2000 or later license, you may run
> MACS agent on it.  If you own a valid Windows Server 2003 license, you
> may run MACS collector on it.  You will have to purchase SQL Server
> licenses.
> 
> MACS is optimized to the security event log.  It collects event log
data
> in a different manner than MOM (which was mentioned earlier in this
> thread).  MOM is great for system management but is very hefty for
> security log management and has a number of limitations, such as a
30GB
> database size limit.  MACS compares very favorably to MOM in terms of
> database size, network traffic volume, and speed of collection.
However
> MACS is not a general-purpose management tool.  MACS is designed to
work
> with management systems in general and will include a MOM management
> pack.  It will also include all necessary documentation to use any
other
> management system that supports Windows, to manage MACS.
> 
> If you would like to participate in the MACS beta, please send me the
> following:
> 
> 1. Name
> 2. Passport-enabled email address (you *MUST* have a Passport; our
beta
> download site uses Passport authentication).
> 3. Physical address
> 4. Phone number
> 
> I'll be happy to answer any other questions about our project.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Eric Fitzgerald
> Program Manager
> Windows Core Security- Auditing & Security Reporting Microsoft
> Corporation
> 425-705-9601

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